How Shadow AI Is Changing Cybersecurity and Insider Risk

Raj Koo, CTO at DTEX, joins The Tech Trek for a sharp conversation on insider risk, shadow AI, and why security teams need a more modern way to think about intent. This episode is worth your time if you are trying to understand how AI is changing cyber risk, why non malicious behavior can still create major exposure, and what it takes to protect the business without slowing down innovation.

Raj explains why the old approach of blocking known bad behavior is no longer enough. As employees bring personal AI tools into the workplace, security teams are dealing with a new reality, one where productivity gains, agentic workflows, and data exposure are all colliding at once.

In this episode

• Why DTEX focuses on inferring intent, not just catching exfiltration

• Why shadow AI is different from shadow IT, and harder to control

• How non malicious employee behavior can become the biggest insider risk category

• Why agentic AI raises the stakes for visibility and governance

• How mature insider risk programs are shrinking response times even as costs rise

Timestamped highlights

• 00:00 Raj Koo on inferring intent in cybersecurity

• 01:59 Why early warning signals matter more than the exfiltration point

• 04:38 The rising cost of insider risk

• 06:25 How shadow AI became a major non malicious risk

• 08:13 Why shadow AI is more complex than shadow IT

• 17:53 Detection times are improving, but the cost problem is getting worse

Standout line

Security has a chance to stop being seen as the function that blocks productivity and start being seen as the function that helps the business adopt better tools safely.

Practical takeaway

If your team is dealing with AI adoption in the wild, start with visibility before judgment. Understand which tools people are using, what they are using them for, and where the real risk sits before defaulting to blanket restrictions.

Link to 2026 Cost of Insider Risks Global Report: https://ponemon.dtex.ai/

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